Sophie Nyström
Sophie Nystrom is a freelance photographer with the power of Biokinesis. She currently resides with her sister Sayeva in San Diego, California. Personality Sophie is a stern and disciplined woman, who prefers to keep to herself when at all possible. Her years of life have had her grow contempt with getting to know or help others, as all those she cared about have withered and died. Despite being born into a patriarchy, Sophie cares little about the affairs of men and their motivations. Attempts on her life by a suitor made it all the more impossible for her to ever fully trust a man again. The only consistent thing in Sophie's life have been her two sisters, with the eldest having saved her life on more than one occasion. The combination of this has made her fiercely loyal to them and those related to the trio. Even that loyalty is tested when it is one of her male relatives needing assistance, but she puts her mistrust and disgust of men aside for blood. She is very resentful towards those she blames for the fall of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. For this, she blames almost all people on the Asian continent, and especially Turkey, who is the successor of the Ottoman Empire. She has repeatedly tried to create instability in the country, with varying degrees of success. Each success has her wait to see if it will ripple and cause complete turmoil, sometimes her waiting over a century before trying again. Sophie has tried to create friends and take on lovers during the years, yet each loss has made its mark on her. She has decided that it is no longer worth the pain that comes with their loss to put forth the effort anymore, having a one night stand whenever she has the need for pleasure. That lack of desire has developed into an apathy, as she would rather watch events unfold before her than help or hinder them, for good or devious intentions. Apperance Sophie is a tall woman, standing at five foot and ten inches tall, with a slender frame of only one hundred thirty-four pounds. Her skin is of a slightly darker color, while not being Hispanic or black. Sophie has a very clear complexion, with not a single scar on her entire body, thanks in part to her ability. Her slender frame augments her defined curves, with her having a supple bosom. Her face is framed beautifully with her shoulder length, curly dark brown, almost black hair. It is matched by deep and aged dark brown eyes that look as if they are staring into your soul. Soft pink lips and a straight, narrow nose are complimented by a rounded chin, making Sophie a very attractive woman. Ability Biokinesis Main article: Biokinesis Sophie has the ability to manipulate biological matter, also known as biokinesis. This ability is primarily utulized by Sophie for accelerated healing of physical wounds, as well as the regeneration of lost limbs. In addition to being able to heal herself, this ability allows Sophie to alter her physical appearance, allowing her to appear different ages or ethnicities. As an added benifit, when Sophie is in a resting state (asleep, unconcious, or comatosed), her body naturally harnesses the energy produced in celluar reproduction to replinish itself. As a product of her control over biological matter Sophie has the passive ability of everlasting life, also known as immortality. This in addition makes Sophie immune to all natural diseases. In order to extert control over bilogical materal outside her own body, Sophie must maintain physical contact with the material or host material. History Sophie was originally born Valeria, fourth child and third daughter of her patrician father Gaius Valerius and mother Julia. Her patrician father was a small government official, merely patrician thanks to his marriage into the house of Julii. Like most daughters of patrician houses, Valeria, and her two older sisters of the same name, were meant to be pawns in her families power struggles, married off to whichever higher house offered the best set of terms. Life as a patrician daughter was not all bad, as she bonded closely with her sisters on many misadventures to the docks, the trading markets, or even beyond the walls of the port city. She had a sense of adventure, something her mother wished to see put out, but her father and siblings encouraged. Education was as good as it was going to get, with her, her siblings, as well around another dozen patrician children were taught from the same mentor from the moment they could know their words, until they entered the service of the Empire or were married off. Their status as well as wealth meant Valeria never went without food or water and had the finest garments and other pretty things she desired. As Valeria entered puberty and began to realize the differences of the sexes, she also began to realize that she felt little desire for a male. Instead, she found she was curiously attracted to other women and only women. It was not uncommon for women to sleep with other women until they found husbands but she knew in her heart that she did not desire a husband at all. Yet her father had already made her promise that she would do her part to help the family, which meant to be married off. He had even been as generous as to allow her a choice of suitors, rather than arrange a marriage as had been done with her elder two sisters. Many of the suitors were kind men, who Sophie would consider marrying if only to please her father, but there was one that seemed quite obsessed with her. After rejecting many advances from the would be suitor, Sophie was displeased as he appeared once more and asked for her hand in marriage or else. Believing this to be just another fool's attempt to gain her hand, Sophie denied his request. However, as she moved to meet with her sisters for lunch, he pulled forth a dagger concealed in his tunic and plunged it deep in Sophie's back, penetrating her heart. A shriek of pain was all she could do as he lurched the dagger back and taunted her as she began to die. Sophie could only hear the commotion that came afterward, where she later found out Sera had murdered the man who had attempted to take her own life. As she had laid dying on the floor, she was overcame with the strangest sensations and had found herself coming back to life, with no trace of her would be fatal wound. It took a lot of the collected family wealth, but the murder of her suitor was properly labelled an accident and the sisters left untouched. However, the event had soured Sophie completely on men, even on the suitors who had swore by her good name in the investigation into the death. She could not find it in herself to ever feel like she could fully trust another man again, as even her relationship with her aging father and caring brother took a turn for the worse. Either giving up that Sophie would ever be able to take a man or content with having an heir and two of his daughters married off, her father relented on the need for her to be married, as long as she kept her female lovers hidden from public eye. Sophie felt guilty that she had let her family down, had not contributed to its growth in strength and numbers. In fact, she had weakened it through her actions, if even it was indirectly. Determined to make good on her promise to do her part to help the family, Sophie hired a private mentor for herself to learn all she could. How to handle money, how to deal with other high class families, even battle and battle strategy were among her lessons and she planned to use them all. A friend of the family managed to work Sophie into the same council that her father had been apart of, at the cost of her father leaving it. Her father that it was a trick to weaken their house, as Sophie was completely inexperienced, but her lessons had given her an edge. What she lacked in experience of helping rule a growing city like Byzantium, she made up for in new strategies and ideas to better run the city. Quickly the council began to realize that that they were relying on Sophie and her innovative ideas and Sophie felt proud in helping the city run more smoothly and helping grow her family's influence and power. Sophie had made good on her other promise to her father, keeping the woman she had taken as a lover secret. She lived in their family's villa, working as a handmaiden to Sophie when she was not busy with the council. Her chores were few, as Sophie did not feel right that her lover would have to serve her, but knew she would need the money that came with the work if they ever split. It was one day as she was brushing out Sophie's hair that she commented on how it seemed as Sophie had not aged a bit nor had been ill for many years. Sophie had initially thought nothing of it, but when she saw her reflection later that day, she realized that her lover was right. Her body still looked that of a woman who was barely entering her thirties, rather than that of one who was about to turn forty. When Sophie saw her sisters for their next lunch meeting, she noticed that they two had looked as it had been some time since they had aged. She was surprised that it had escaped her notice for as long as it had seemingly it had but she was in awe of it. She knew that the gods were never to age, but she was no god, nor were her sisters as far as she knew. Yet she had not been slain when that suitor had taken the blade to her heart. She was not sure what to make of it all, but if she was right, she and her sisters all seemed to be gifted with everlasting life. This realization made her more emboldened when approaching her work for the city. She now would outlive all others on the council and if they disagreed with her, she could just implement her plans when they passed away. She had been approached once by her fellow council members about her lack of aging, to which she merely responded with a smile and said that her family had won favor with the gods with their continued worship. She kept this position until Constantine himself had become Emperor and officially split the Empire in two, making her home the capital of the new half of the Empire. She was able to convince Theodora however to keep her on as aide and eventually became one of the military advisers to the Emperor during the various civil wars and expansions, despite his edict that all religions were to be tolerated and conversion to the upstart religion of Christianity. Sophie watched diligently as her family continued to thrive under the influence and power she and her sisters had crafted for them. The deaths of the children she helped raise as they grew and had lives tore at her heart, the same with each new lover she found. Solace was found in her continued service to Constantinople, becoming the invisible hand that worked the city even when it thought it could not be worked anymore. It was not until the sacking of the city in the mid fifteenth century that she left her home, taking a new name as she and Sayeva fled to Italy, along with many others from the new Ottoman rulers. Unlike her sister, Sophie cared not for the new lands that they had arrived in. It was nothing like it had been when the Empire was ruled from Roma, its thinkers and rulers too caught up in power struggles within itself to worry about the threats on the horizon. Whatever greatness that the Empire had been was lost on the peons that now called its land home. Her hope that there was something out there for her to care about, to work towards was crashed with the failure of the Italian city states to be anything more than petty kingdoms. Bidding her sister well, Sophie left Italy and headed north to Scandinavia where she heard that Pagans still had a standing. Like Sera before her, Sophie had given Sayeva names to look for if she ever needed to find her, even if it pained her to leave the last good thing in her life behind. In the cold north, Sophie found it easy to hide among the viking nations, if one could call them that. It was much like Italy but with more wasteland for her to hide in and lose herself to the world. In her solitude, an anger festered at the Ottomans for robbing her of her home, of the life she had come love, of everything that she knew. Even the graves of her lost family and lovers was lost to her and for that, she wanted to see the Ottomans pay. Time moved quickly for her, lost in a rage, sometimes venturing into various part of the Ottoman Empire to cause panic and mischief. It was through great luck that she managed to have Osman II assassinated in one of her ventures into the false Empire. Though it turned out that it had not had the intended effect and it gave her pause as to whether the continued striking out would even accomplish her goals to see the Empire fall, having her attempts come fewer and less frequent until she quit after the collapse and the remnants creating Turkey. She still felt a hatred for the nation and of the Asiatic peoples that they had originated from, but no longer saw the purpose in her continued attacks. She grew ever the more apathetic towards the world with its only advancements towards better ways to destroy each other. The present held none of the mystique or passions of the old world she had been born into. Yet the events that took place in America following April 4th brought a stir in her, as she saw her kind being attacked. Deciding to see if this attack on Specials was worth her time, she moved to America and began to quietly observe the growing tensions between Specials and non specials. Recent Activites Following a failed visit of her sister Sayeva, Sophie flew down to San Diego to check on her. When she arrived there, Sayeva invited Sophie to move in with her, and Sophie accepted hoping that time with her sister would begin the process of healing her apathy towards the world. Following their reuniting, Brogan Kilvayne now resides with the sisters, having one time been a love interest of Sayeva. Interesting Facts *Due to her numerous movings, Sophie has learned to speak the following languages fluently: Greek, Latin, Italian, Dutch, German, French, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Arabic, and English. *Sophie has had five "wives" in her lifetime. Category:Characters Category:Neutral Category:Immortals